


Role Reversal: Grinding Ice Edition

by Drag0nst0rm



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, What-If, bullet point fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-19 21:25:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17009502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drag0nst0rm/pseuds/Drag0nst0rm
Summary: Fingolfin's not the one left behind when the ships sail.This doesn't go well.





	Role Reversal: Grinding Ice Edition

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the Silmarillion.

\- See, here’s the thing: Reunification works, more or less, when Fingolfin shows up, but I think it works because a) Feanor’s dead so they can blame it all on him, b) Maedhros can give up the crown to Fingolfin, and c) Fingolfin is willing to bend, at least a little.

\- If Fingolfin had been the one to abandon Feanor, I’m not so optimistic.

\- So let’s say it’s not just Fingon who helps in the first kinslaying. A lot more of Fingolfin’s forces show up, see their kin in the middle of a fight, and throw themselves in the middle of it. As a consequence, it’s not just Feanor’s forces controlling the boats.

\- Fingolfin doesn’t trust his half-brother, definitely doesn’t trust him to be in the right head space right now, doesn’t trust his rule, and is really worried by this oath. He manages to get control of all the boats and sails off without him.

\- Fingolfin has no trust issues with the hosts of his full brother, but by that time, Arafinwe’s turned around, and it’s just his kids and their followers. There’s not really room for all of them on the boats, and Fingolfin’s not really sold on the idea of his niece and nephews following him against their father’s wishes, and it’s not like he can return for them and not Feanor. It’ll be fine.

\- Fingolfin, not being as dramatic as Feanor, does not burn the boats. They could still be useful. He just doesn’t send them back either.

\- Fingon protests this. Frequently. Fingolfin makes sure to send him inland as soon as possible and is very thankful that Fingon isn’t capable of sailing a boat back entirely on his own.

\- With no burning, it takes them longer to realize the boats aren’t coming back.

\- Feanor takes this calmly and goes home.

\- Ha. Ha. Ha. No. 

\- Feanor is furious. He was right not to trust his half-brother, he was right about everything, and he can’t go home, not with his father unavenged, and his silmarils stolen, and he’s been banished anyway. It doesn’t matter that crossing the Helcaraxe looks like suicide; he’s going to have to try.

\- His followers are 100% behind him. The Arafinweans are a little more divided. Some of them are determined enough not to follow Feanor that they go home, but his niece and nephews all stay.

\- “We don’t know what happened,” Maedhros points out as calmly as he can. “Maybe they didn’t mean to abandon us.”

\- “That’s true,” Caranthir concedes. “Ulmo’s probably not too happy with us. The ships could have all sunk.”

\- “Or Morgoth could have killed them all already,” Curufin suggests.

\- Maedhros presses his lips together tightly. Feanor is not appeased.

\- They cross the Grinding Ice.

\- The good thing about Feanor being the one to do this is that he’s an inventor and while these are definitely not ideal conditions, he still makes things. Things for light, things for warmth, things that make it easier to hunt. Things that save lives.

\- It’s still not enough.

\- Lots of their people die. Statistically speaking, someone from the royal family should probably die too, but who is impossible to predict. Maybe Celegorm misjudges the ice on a hunt. Maybe it’s one of the unnamed wives.

\- Maybe it’s someone who’s not quite full grown and doesn’t have as much body mass. Maybe it’s someone young enough that their brilliance isn’t quite tempered by practicality. Maybe it’s someone who wanted to help, like their father and grandfather, and made a mistake in doing it.

\- In other words, maybe it’s Celebrimbor.

\- Curufin loses it. Feanor -

\- Well, Maedhros changes his mind and starts hoping Fingolfin and all his hosts are dead, because otherwise, there’s probably going to be another kinslaying.

\- Fingolfin is not quite as impulsive as his brother, and he’s not yet given in to despair. He fights smart, doesn’t get ahead of his forces, and doesn’t challenge Morgoth to single combat.

\- Morgoth offers to treat with him for the silmarils. Fingolfin is interested in the silmarils, but not _that_ interested. He declines.

\- Meanwhile, Galadriel still doesn’t like Feanor, but she has a grudging respect for him. Finrod and his brothers have a cautious respect for him. It’s always best to be cautious around Feanor these days, particularly if you are the son of the other half-brother.

\- Fingolfin has a fortress and the beginnings of alliances. Now that the moon’s risen, they’ve even got some light. Things are looking good.

\- … And the sun, which is a bit much, but hey, more light, and - Oh, look. 

\- It’s a family reunion.

\- At this point, I think things would go worse than canon, because if Fingolfin goes, “Look, you’re right, I was wrong, have the crown to make things right,” Feanor’s just going to go, “You mean the crown that’s mine by rights anyway?”

\- And it’s not, of course, like this is any more unforgivable than the other way around, it’s just that apparently, canonically, Fingolfin is willing to forgive it at least so far as to work with his half-brother’s kids, and Feanor … Feanor’s really not, or at least I can’t figure out a way for him to get there.

\- Or, rather, I can maybe see him willing to work with Fingolfin’s kids, but only after someone, preferably himself, has put Fingolfin’s head on a spike. For this kind of offense, a big symbol of repentance is necessary, and with the kingship not a bargaining chip, I just don’t know what would do it.

\- Unless.

\- The combined efforts of Maedhros, Maglor, and Finrod keep him from starting another kinslaying immediately. He goes to hear Fingolfin out.

\- It does not go well.

\- It doesn’t end in bloodshed, however, so now we’ve got two simmering camps, just like in canon, and they’re probably about to blow.

\- Unless … Unless … 

\- Unless, maybe, say, Maedhros goes on patrol and doesn’t return. They send out search parties and discover his whole patrol dead, except for him.

\- Maedhros has been been captured by Morgoth.

\- Morgoth is delighted by this. He hangs Feanor’s firstborn up on Thangorodrim and torments him, like a big red flag he’s waving in front of a bull.

\- Feanor is exactly as provoked as hoped for, and it takes everyone’s combined efforts to get him to slow down enough to put together something resembling a plan.

\- While this is happening, something happens that nobody in any of the three armies in the area predicted.

\- Fingon goes after his cousin.

\- The only noticeable differences between this and canon is that Maedhros is not yet to the point where he actually asks Fingon to kill him, and Fingon, when he realizes he’s going to have to cut his cousin’s hand off, does so thinking all the while, _His father is going to kill me._

\- But it’s the only way, so Fingon does it anyway.

\- Maedhros spins the story so well that Feanor never even thinks about getting upset about the hand and instead just starts planning prosthetics. It’s the first project that’s managed to get Curufin’s interest in a while.

\- Fingon is forgiven by all the Feanorians then and there, even more so when they learn he opposed the abandonment. He manages to become a link between the two camps.

\- Morgoth is furious.


End file.
